Re: [libreoffice-users] Workarounds for multiple problems with the legacy Report Designer-Wizard under LO 3.5

Comments inline:

On Mon, 2012-05-07 at 15:28 +0300, Pertti Rönnberg wrote:
> Fred,
> I also want to thank you for an adequate discussion - more of that kind 
> on this mailing list is needed!
> Let us only hope it will lead to something in practice -- but I am 
> afraid not.
>
> May I take part from a slightly another point of view.
> My system is Windows7/LibO3.4.6 and I do not know anything about 
> LibO3.5.x versions  (too much bugs and other problems!)
>
> If someone has managed to get LibO-Base work well enough to get a 
> database created and is now ready for creating reports, then he/she is 
> better not to use any (report) wizard, but use a Report Builder (RB) in 
> stead;
> if RB is not available for LibO yet (if not - why not? & sufficient 
> documentation?) then there is an add-on for OpenO-Base -- somebody 
> mentioned that LibO and OpenO are identical.
> The RB is as easy (if not easier) and straight forward to use and you 
> are free to decide about the report's layout as you want - with the 
> wizard you are (almost) bound to the it's limitations.  With the RB you 
> can do everything - and more - as with the wizard, why the wizard is 
> more or less a burden.
> In my experience the RB worked well but, despite promises in 
> introduction, with the exception of "Page/Report Header" and 
> "Page/Report Footer".
>
> These are not only cosmetic matters but very much needed e.g. when a 
> long report covers several pages.
>  >>> you may want the Report Header (report name, date, etc.) plus the 
> Page Header (e.g. column headings) on the first page, but only the Page 
> Header with the column headings repeated on every next pages - no Report 
> Headers are wanted there
>  >>> at the end of every page, in the Page Footer, you may want to count 
> or/and sum some fields per page and finally summarize them at the end of 
> the report, in the Report Footer.
> (Nor did the 'horisontal-line' button draw any visible lines)
> As far as I know are these not possible now -- when will these be fixed?

     I wish that I could answer your concerns. I have not learned of
when someone will address these problems. It is likely that Apache
OpenOffice will not have a Report Builder for Base because of these
problems, at least not until someone can solve these problems.

> In my opinion also the Form Wizard is of no use - it should be skipped. 
> Much better is to create the form manually using Form Design View, 
> provided that both the program/development and the documentation are 
> recreated to a sufficient level of functionality and quality. At least 
> that helps the user to understand what he/she is doing.
>  >>    in LibO there are no easy to reach and sufficient documentation 
> on how to create a form (and a subform) manually using Form Design View
>  >>    in LibO (with embedded HSQL) you are bound to create a form based 
> on a table only (=> each form on one table!) - you can not create a form 
> on a query!

     Each have their own opinions about the Base Wizards. I prefer to
use the Form Wizard as a beginning point. It does have a limitation of
the main form and its subform. But from this beginning, I have added a
subform to a subform by editing the form. In another embedded database,
I also have created a form containing the main form, its subform (a
table), and two queries based upon that table. When I change data in the
table, I immediately see the corresponding changes in the queries. 

--Dan

> These errors must be immediately corrected to increase the usability and 
> flexibility of LibO.
> Best regards
> Pertti Rönnberg
>
>
>
> On 6.5.2012 23:01, Tom Davies wrote:
> > Hi :)
> > Nice work Fred!  Have you considered joining either the docs team (to help Dan write the guide 
> > for Base or develop the Faq further) or the devs team to do some "Easy Hacks" and then come 
> > back to Base?  The docs team could really use the help!
> > Regards from
> > Tom :) 
> >
> >
> > --- On Sat, 5/5/12, frofa<frof07@yahoo.com.au>  wrote:
> >
> > From: frofa<frof07@yahoo.com.au>
> > Subject: [libreoffice-users] Workarounds for multiple problems with the legacy Report 
> > Designer-Wizard under LO 3.5
> > To: users@global.libreoffice.org
> > Date: Saturday, 5 May, 2012, 8:07
> >
> > After doing a bit more investigation recently, this is a summary of what I've
> > found (so far) regarding the multiple problems with the legacy Report
> > Designer-Wizard (RDW) under LO 3.5. For convenience and succinctness, I
> > thought it might be worth SUMMARIZING the situation in this new message. It
> > seems there are (at least) 3 different problems/bugs with the RDW under LO
> > 3.5.
> >
> >
> > SUMMARY OF PROBLEMS WITH THE REPORT-DESIGNER-WIZARD (UNDER LO 3.5)
> >
> > 1. All reports of course need to be based on an SQL query (whether
> > pre-existing, or generated 'on-the-fly' by the RDW)
> >
> > 2. When building a Report using the LRD, there are 2 situations (specified
> > in the first step of the RDW):
> >    a.  Select a TABLE from your database
> >    b.  Select a (pre-existing) QUERY from your database (referencing the
> > TABLE above)
> >
> > 3. In the first case (2a above), using LO 3.5, the wizard DOES generate the
> > appropriate query (with the fields and sorting the user has selected), and
> > stores it in the hidden COMMAND control field. But NOTE, there is still a
> > PROBLEM in the case where the Report needs to have GROUP HEADERS (i.e.
> > GROUPED on one of the database fields). In this case, the auto-generated
> > QUERY is incomplete, and the GROUP BY term is omitted. This can be fixed by
> > simply editing the QUERY in the COMMAND control field and adding the GROUP
> > BY term. This is effectively another BUG, in my opinion (the 'Repeated
> > Headings Bug'). e.g. see here:
> > http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Base-and-new-Report-Builder-in-3-5-td3817159.html#a3835807
> >
> > 4. In the second case (2b above), the wizard either does NOT generate the
> > query (or does NOT copy it into the COMMAND control field) - leaving it
> > BLANK. So it has to be entered 'manually'. This is the 'Blank COMMAND field'
> > bug mentioned elsewhere.
> > https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=47473
> >
> > 5. When I use the LRD in OpenOffice v.3.3 to generate the SAME report from
> > the SAME database, the wizard correctly generates the SQL command, as shown
> > in the hidden COMMAND control field, with the correct GROUPING term, and so
> > the report runs properly in OO. (It also also runs properly in LO 3.5 once
> > the hidden 'SORTING' control is added - that's the OTHER 'Sorting control'
> > bug!). See here...
> > http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Legacy-Base-reports-won-t-open-in-LibreOffice-3-5-td3916293.html#a3917443
> > http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/2589
> > http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Report-Builder-td2762261.html#a2762591
> >
> > 6. OO also correctly copies the query code into the COMMAND control field in
> > the SECOND case (2b) above, so there is no 'blank Command field' BUG in OO -
> > see point 4 above.
> >
> > 7. There seems to be mounting evidence that these problems affect LO 3.5
> > user on all platforms. See the links above for more info.
> >
> > I'm not a programmer, and don't have any deep technical understanding of LO
> > and BASE, but it looks to me that how the RDW works has been changed
> > somewhere down the line in LO development, leading to these 'bugs' (which,
> > from what other users have reported, don't seem to affect LO 3.3 - not sure
> > about LO 3.4).
> >
> > I hope this summary helps people using the RDW create properly functioning
> > reports until the problems are sorted down the track. Despite it's flaws, I
> > find the Report Designer Wizard a very flexible and useful tool, and hope
> > that it will continue to be supported by the LO development team.
> >
> > - Fred



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